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2.1.3.2 Modification ofunhealthy attitudes
Thismay start with the realization by the patient/client that attitudes are not deter­
mined by the situation but by the person. Frankl used to emphasise that the same
situation in which one finds himself/herselfcan be interpreted by another person dif­
ferently. The attitude one takes toward events influences psychological health, or it
may lead, ifit is negative, to sickness. Guttmann (1996:126) correctly pointed out
that people can lead self-fulfilling lives ifthey acquire confidence in themselves, if
they are willing to say "I can", rather than "I cannot", to the tasks at hand.
Frankl's emphasis that, "He that has a why to live can bear with almost any how,"
underlines an important fact; that is that those who see meaning in their suffering, or
those that attach meaning to someone, or something, in a given situation, will be
more competent and efficient to handle those situations, than those who are still
moving in their existential vacuum and do not see/do not find any meaning, in where
they are/or what they do.
2.1.3.3 Search for new meanings
Logotherapists believe that the search for new meanings begins when the client/pa­
tient has reduced, moved away from or eliminated the negative symptoms. The
elimination ofnegative symptoms is necessary to accept positive attitudes to life
because when a client identifies himseWherselfwith hislher symptoms, he/she
normally locks himseWherselfinto self-centeredness. Excessive attention to negative
factors blocks their view beyond themselves (Lukas 1980:35 & Guttmann 1996:126­
127). Inthis step it is necessary to help clients use their liberation from their harmful
and pathogenic symptoms to accept positive attitudes to life.
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